The Kid from Kokomo

Boxing manager 'Square Shooting Murph' (Pat O'Brien) has to get out of town quick after betting against his own boxer in dirty business fraud. He discovers boxing savant farm boy Homer Baston (Wayne Morris) who is haunted by his long-lost mother. Murph and girlfriend Doris Harvey (Joan Blondell) convince him that the boxing publicity would bring his mother to him. When no mother shows up, he threatens to leave boxing and go home. No matter what, Murph needs to come up with a mother.

It is a fun premise. There is a better ending. I would like Murph doing something powerful and emotional to redeem himself after Homer discovers the truth. That would be the more standard way to go. This one is a bit more goofy and I don't see it as happily ever after as it thinks it is.

I tried my best to dislike this, to see it for what it is: a cheap, quickly made B movie with hackneyed poorly written stereotypes....but I actually enjoyed it.

Sick and tired of being forced to play the same old role over and over again, Joan Blondell finally resigned from Warner Brothers but Jack Warner insisted she fulfil her contractual obligation by making one last film, this one. She'd complained that she was never given any proper dramatic roles but was told that she wasn't employed as an actress but just for her big eyes and big boobs. Everyone believed that this film was going to be dross so Jack Warner insisted that his deserting star would feature in this. If being associated with this wouldn't damage any future prospects of employment for her nothing would! Additionally, out of spite, her role was minimised, a younger female actress was put into the story and to cap it all, she was only given third billing.

It makes me angry that the studio treated this loveliest of all the 1930s actress so badly. That's what made me determined that I'd hate this - I only watched it to see if it was as bad as they said. I was annoyed with myself for actually enjoying this - almost disloyal to the memory of my 1930s crush!

It's hardly a great picture but you quickly begin to like the crassly conceived characters so have to keep watching. You might not want it to be but it's annoyingly engaging. The story (from the pen of a young Dalton Trumbull) is quite different if a little cruel. It's an unedifying endoscopy into the world of boxing promotion. Pat O'Brien and Joan Blondell cynically trick a feeble minded, orphaned country bumpkin into becoming a prize fighter by getting an old alcoholic ex-con to pretend to be his doting long-lost mother.

That old woman is the brilliant 80-year old May Robson (amazingly when she was born Disraeli was PM, Charles Dickens was still writing novels and Abraham Lincoln had yet to become president of America!) Although her performance is less impressive than in the fabulous LADY FOR A DAY, she is the real star of this - she imbues class and genuine humour to what otherwise be just another slightly shabby B feature. Poor Joan may have hated this but she'd been in many much worse pictures.

WELL NOW, WHAT have we here? In what could very well have been an obscure title that we'd passed up, our fancy was definitely tickled to a very high degree. Although this KID FROM KOKOMO was undoubtedly pre-classified as a "Pot Boiler" and definitely just one cog in Warner Brothers' yearly output, it certainly did it self proud in showcasing its containing pure entertainment and fun. And its lack of any pretension about being cinematic "art" underscores its true mission in pleasing a movie audience.

WE HAVE FORMULATED a few educated guesses in our review and plead "guilty as charged" about our high level of fondness generated.

WE'VE ALWAYS FELT that, whereas there are so many other great and near great examples of great pictures out there in our film archives and we have been blessed with such fine names behind the film industry, that Warner Brothers somehow had always managed to have its corporate finger right on the pulse of American tastes and preferences. This assertion extends all the way, across the board from the Class "A" features., the "B's", Short Subjects and even to their animation department's LOONEY TUNES and MERRY MELODIES.

AT LEAST SOME of the cause behind our thesis is attributable to the background of the Brothers Warner. Sons of Jewish Immigrants from Poland (Russian Empire), after immigrating to America, then to Ontario, Canada, they were raised in Youngstown, Ohio. This,we contend, gave them a less than provincial outlook on the country and the world. It also prevented them from being indoctrinated with any sort of "Big Apple" syndrome. (Although so many of their pictures were centered on life in our greatest city).

ANOTHER ATTRIBUTE WHICH we must bring to the floor is the Warner Brothers' propensity to simplify production matters. Jack W. was once quoted as saying something about if a script is too long to be read while sitting on and using the commode, it was too long.

THE STUDIO ALSO had a knack for taking stage plays , many having been unproduced, and turning them into celluloid gold. This movie would certainly fit into that category. (By the bye, ever heard of EVERYONE COMES TO RICK'S aka CASABLANCA ?)

AS FOR THE production itself, it is fine example of economy of time and shooting schedule. whereas it certainly was no cheapie or poverty row special, it made great use of many preexisting sets. Added to that we have a fine cast top to bottom. We had Pat O'Brien, Joan Blondell and Wayne Morris in the starring roles. In support we have May Robson, a young Jane Wyman, Edward Brophy, 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom, Sidney Toler (Charlie Chan), Morgan Conway (future Dick Tracy), rising star John Ridgley, Ward Bond and Paul Hurst. In an uncredited role, Al Hill appears (better known to us of the Baby Boomer generation as Heavyweight Champ, "Killer Kilduff" in the 3 Stooges' PUNCH DRUNKS (Columbia, 1934) and as bank robber "Filthy McNasty" in the W.C. Fields starring vehicle THE BANK DICK (Universal, 1940).

AND FOR JUST one last observation, it would appear that the studio was attempting to recapture at least some of the magic that was generated by the previous production of KID GALAHAD (WB/1937), which starred Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. It introduced a young Wayne Morris in a very similar role to this one.

It was a cute and fun show and I enjoyed it - made me laugh.

One Sunday morning, I was flipping through the channels when I caught this film on T. V. It was an interesting film. Pat O' Brien and Joan Blondell star, and it was a pretty good story. Of course, this little film pales next to most releases of 1939 (GONE WITH THE WIND, THE WIZARD OF OZ, STAGECOACH, etc.)